1. Related Applications
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
2. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to support devices for handguns, and more particularly to a clip releasably fastened to a handgun to provide support on a user's clothing or in a bracket attached to a supportalive structure.
3. Background and Description of Prior Art
Handguns generally are relatively small articles that often for use, especially for self-protection or combat, must continuously be readily available to a user. Handguns also have various externally protruding parts which essentially effect their operation, such as sights, trigger guards, safeties, magazine releases, and the like which may be accidentally or unintentionally moved during storage. Since handguns often are carried in a fully loaded condition for rapid emergency use, the accidental change of their operating elements may create severe problems and make the guns dangerous both to a user and third parties. These problems have heretofore been recognized and responsively various holding and support devices for handguns have become known. The instant invention presents a new and novel member of this group of devices.
Many holding devices have taken the form of a holster of some type that contains a portion or substantially all of a handgun to positionally maintain it by gravity, friction fastening straps, or a combination of these means. Commonly such holsters are supported somewhere on the body of a user, especially at or about the waist or in the vicinity of a shoulder, though they may be supported at almost any position on a body, in clothing or on various support structures. Many holsters effectively positionally maintain a handgun, though none has been found to be completely ideal for such purpose and each of the various types of holsters present various unsolved problems. Most holsters are formed of a semi-rigid, somewhat resilient material, commonly some type of harder leather, and commonly such material is shaped somewhat to the configuration of a handgun that is to be carried in it, with an opening through which the handgun may be inserted into and withdrawn from the holster.
Such holsters, to provide any particular security for holding of a handgun, generally encase a substantial portion of the gun to be held and if so, commonly when the handgun is moved into and out of such a holster, various portions of the gun surface have moving frictional engagement with the inner surface of the holding holster. Over a period of time this causes wear on the handgun surface and since many handguns have a colored or so-called "blued" surface, this coloration may be removed to show distinct evidence of wear on the handgun surface. This showing of wear is not aesthetically desirable and might even cause mechanical problems.
Holsters that support a handgun over a relatively small portion of its surface generally must do so with substantially more force than holsters that support a handgun over a larger portion of the surface and such holsters therefore generally have substantially more frictional engagement with a portion of the handgun they support. This enhances the wear problem as the increased friction causes greater and more rapid wear and the wear is more concentrated in a particular location so that it may be more pronounced to visual inspection. The instant holding device provides a clip carried on the handgun surface for fastening to some second object to do away with the holster entirely and alleviate the wear problems associated therewith.
Often it is relatively difficult to insert and withdraw a handgun from the traditional containment type holster and in so doing, it may be difficult to grip the handgun and, when it is gripped, the gripping may be in some fashion other than that in which the gun commonly would be held for shooting. Generally the more securely the handgun is held and maintained in a holster, the more difficult and clumsy it is of insertion and withdrawal. In combat and self-defensive situations, this problem becomes quite critical and may present substantial dangers to a user, even though the user is habitually familiar with the method and manner of use of a particular holster and handgun. The instant clip solves this problem by supporting a handgun only over a small area of its surface and in a position which does not cover the handgun's external operating mechanism, so that substantially the entire external surface of the handgun is exposed and available for gripping in a traditional shooting fashion. The handgun may remain in this position upon withdrawal from its support, whether that support is in or on the clothing of a user or on some secondary object.
To be available for rapid use, a handgun must be in the vicinity of a user's hands and readily accessible from normal hand positions. This requirement in practice has been manifest by handgun positioning at or about the waist, generally along the lateral portion or sometimes at anterior or posterior portions, or about the lateral portions of the upper torso, most commonly below the armpits. Traditional holsters usually have been designed for use at or about one or another of these positions, but a holster designed for use at one position may not be readily adaptable for use at another position and normally a holster has to have different types of supports for different positionings, even if the same holster were so usable. The instant support clip requires no particular positioning on a user or any support straps that are specially related to either waist or shoulder positioning of a handgun, but rather the same clip may be used to maintain the handgun at any body position, in distinguishment from the traditional shoulder and waist holsters of the present day.
Commonly when handguns are carried upon the person of a user or on a supporting structure in his presence, such as in a vehicle, about a desk or the like, it is desired for social and practical utilitarian reasons that the gun be concealed and not obvious to ordinary visual inspection. This often is difficult to accomplish with traditional holsters as a handgun itself has substantial bulk to allow visual indication of its whereabouts and a holster only accentuates this bulk and requires particular positioning and support which also accentuate the visual identification of a holstered gun. The instant clip resolves this problem by providing a holding device that is of insignificant bulk that adds nothing noticeable to the bulk of a supported handgun, while at the same time providing means that allow support of a handgun in or on the user's clothing at substantially any position desired. The instant clip commonly may be fastened upon the waist band of pants or a skirt, in the upper edge of pockets of coats or shirts, at the juncture of a sleeve with the body of a coat, in the front flap of a shirt or vest, or over a fold in the material of clothing or elsewhere about the body of a user. The clip allows the support of guns in non-traditional positions such as at the top of a boot, on a garter or stocking top, on various edges of underclothing and the like.
Resilient metallic clips have become known, though not commonly used, as a part of the structure of traditionally configured leather holsters to allow support of the holster and to more securely maintain guns in a holster. Such clips generally have been large and bulky, as opposed to the relatively small compact clip of the instant invention, and have not solved the general problems inherent in holsters as hereinbefore detailed. It is not known that elastically resilient metal clips configured and attached as the instant clip have heretofore been used directly with handguns.
The instant invention lies not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of the invention that necessarily provide the functions flowing therefrom.